Court Martial

FORT MEADE, Md. -- A military investigator has recommended that an Army doctor be court-martialed in the death of a 16-year-old girl during routine surgery. The Army alleges Capt. Michael G. Hamner, an anesthesiology resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, improperly administered an antibiotic, then lied about what happened as other doctors tried to rescue the girl. If the recommendation is followed, Hamner would be the first Army doctor to face court-martial in connection with malpractice in at least 30 years, officials said.

Fort Hood -- An appellate court sitting in Washington D.C. has lifted the stay in the U.S. vs. Maj. Nidal M. Hasan court martial. The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces lifted the stay that had put the Hasan court martial on hold since Aug. 15 over whether the trial judge, Col. Gregory Gross, could order the forcible shaving of the accused against his wishes. The CAAF did not rule whether Gross could in fact order a forcible shaving....

Air Force 1st Lt. Kelly Flinn deserved a court-martial on charges of adultery, lying and other alleged misdeeds, according to most readers responding to The Orlando Sentinel's Sound-off.While Sound-off is not scientific, it does gauge the intensity of feelings on an issue.And there were plenty of feelings expressed Thursday both for and against the Air Force's first female B-52 bomber pilot as her attorneys and military brass were reaching a compromise that would spare her a court-martial on charges of adultery, lying, disobeying an order and fraternization.

FORT HOOD, Texas - Military officials on Thursday filed 13 charges of premeditated murder against Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan in last week's gun attack on Fort Hood soldiers, setting the stage for the highest profile court-martial in a generation. The charges carry a potential death penalty, which the military has not formally announced it is pursuing. Because the 39- year-old psychiatrist is an active-duty soldier, military courts have jurisdiction. "It's quite possibly one of the most sensitive military justice matters that's ever come up," said Eugene Fidell,who teaches military law at Yale University and is president of the National Institute for Military Justice.

A lieutenant colonel who was chief of base security at Patrick faces a court-martial Tuesday on charges of indecent assault, conduct unbecoming an officer and drunken driving.Lt. Col. Raymond D. Kerr faces a possible 18-year prison sentence if convicted, said Lila Edwards, public affairs spokeswoman at Patrick. He also could be discharged and lose all military benefits.Because the charges are being prosecuted under military law, Edwards would not disclose details of the charges, further information on Kerr or whether the incidents alleged had been investigated by any civilian agencies.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- The Naval Academy is preparing to prosecute a midshipman accused of indecent assault with a rarely used form of court-martial that doesn't seek prison time but might make it easier to win a conviction. Senior and former football player Kenny Ray Morrison will face a special court-martial in July, The (Baltimore) Sun reported in Sunday's editions. If found guilty, offenders are not imprisoned but would have a federal conviction on their record. Without releasing Morrison's name, the academy announced last week that he and former quarterback Lamar Owens will be court-martialed in connection with separate incidents.

A reservist accused of sexually assaulting a woman in his unit during the Persian Gulf War will face a court-martial on six charges. Sgt. 1st Class David J. Martinez is charged with sexually assaulting Reserve Spec. Jacqueline Ortiz of Sapello, N.M. Ortiz accused Martinez of assaulting her while the two were stationed in Saudi Arabia. Martinez of Albuquerque, N.M., has denied the charges. The charges were filed in July. An Army judicial panel decided Friday that the charges were valid and should be heard before a general court-martial, but it did not set a date.

BALTIMORE -- The Army has rejected an attorney's request to move out of Iraq the court-martial of a soldier accused of abusing Iraqi inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison, a military official said Saturday. Gary Myers, an attorney for Staff Sgt. Ivan "Chip" Frederick II, said moving the trial to Europe or the United States is the only way to guarantee the safety of witnesses and lawyers. His request was rejected May 14; the decision was first reported Saturday by The New York Times.

Women's advocates are watching the court-martial of a former Army drill sergeant as a test of the military's willingness to punish sexual misconduct. Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson is charged with 25 counts of rape at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, a training and weapons-testing base. Pretrial motions are set to begin today, and Simpson's trial is scheduled to begin April 7. After two prosecutions, the military justice system has yet to convict any Aberdeen staff members of forcing subordinates to have sex.

Navy officials have called for a general court-martial for a petty officer accused of making homosexual advances toward other sailors.Chief Petty Officer Edmond Bonnot said he wasn't surprised by Friday's development in his case, which has led to the ouster of the Navy's ''ethics admiral'' amid accusations he tried to cover it up.Bonnot faces five indecent assault charges, two charges of assault with intent to commit sodomy and one charge each of communication of...

GEORGIA SAVANNAH -- The Army says a sergeant charged with slaying two U.S. soldiers in Iraq will be tried by a general court-martial and could face a death sentence if he is convicted. The commander of Fort Stewart on Tuesday ordered the military's highest level of court-martial for Sgt. Joseph Bozicevich. Army prosecutors say Bozicevich, 39, of Minneapolis shot Staff Sgt. Darris Dawson and Sgt. Wesley Durbin last fall at a patrol base south of Baghdad. Witnesses at a preliminary hearing in April said Bozicevich opened fire after the two tried to counsel him for poor performance.

FRANKFURT, GERMANY A U.S. soldier charged with murder in the deaths of four bound and blindfolded Iraqis will be court-martialed, the Army said Wednesday. Sgt. John E. Hatley was charged in September with one count of murder, one count of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of obstruction of justice in the killing of four Iraqi men in Baghdad in April 2007. So far, six of seven soldiers implicated in the case -- all of whom were with the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq -- have faced a military-court judge.

Military prosecutors accused a U.S. soldier Sunday of taking an Iraqi detainee to a remote desert location, stripping him naked, shooting him in the head and chest and then watching as another soldier set fire to the body with an incendiary grenade. The allegations were made at the opening hearing at Camp Speicher, Iraq, to determine whether there is enough evidence against 1st Lt. Michael C. Behenna for a court-martial. He has already been charged with premeditated murder of his prisoner, Ali Mansour Mohammed.

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- A Marine charged in the killings of 24 Iraqis has been ordered to testify against his squad leader, who faces the most serious charges in the case, the junior Marine's lawyer said. An attorney for Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum said he received notice that his client is to appear at next month's court-martial of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, who faces nine counts of voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and obstruction of justice for the 2005 killings in Haditha.

The court-martial that cleared an Army sniper, Spc. Jorge G. Sandoval, of two counts of murder sentenced him Saturday to five months in prison, reduced his rank to private and ordered his pay withheld for planting evidence in the deaths of two Iraqi civilians. At the court-martial, which was held in Baghdad, a five-man, two-woman panel decided Sandoval was guilty of a lesser charge of placing detonation wire on one of the bodies to make it look as though the man was an insurgent. Sectarian violence claimed at least 40 more lives across Iraq, with a flurry of attacks around the northern city of Mosul where bombs, gunmen and mortar fire killed 14. The Iraqi government announced a start date for the reconstruction of a revered Shiite shrine badly damaged in two bombings.

ALBANY, Ga. -- An Army medic accused of killing a soldier during a night of heavy drinking in Iraq is set to face a court-martial Tuesday at Fort Benning. Spc. Chris Rolan, 23, of Albuquerque is charged with premeditated murder in the Nov. 16, 2005, shooting of Pvt. Dylan Paytas, 20, of Freedom, Pa. Rolan allegedly shot Paytas four times with his Army-issue 9 mm pistol during an argument at Camp Warhorse in Baqouba, Iraq. Both were assigned to Fort Benning's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, which helped lead the 2003 charge to Baghdad.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- An Army officer accused of raping a New Jersey National Guard soldier is scheduled to face a military jury and his accuser in a court-martial today. Jennifer Dyer, 26, alleges that Lt. Mike Hall raped her after leaving an officer's club in August at Camp Shelby, near Hattiesburg, Miss. She said she reported the rape immediately and was given medical treatment but that Army investigators doubted her allegations and sequestered her in a hotel for three days without access to a telephone.

PARRIS ISLAND, S.C. -- A hearing officer has recommended that a Marine Corps swim instructor face a court-martial on a negligent-homicide charge in the drowning death of a private last year, a Corps spokesman said Wednesday. Staff Sgt. Nadya Y. Lopez, 26, is accused in the death of Pvt. Jason Tharp, 19, of Sutton, W.Va., who drowned in a pool Feb. 8 during water-survival training at the Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot at Parris Island. Other unspecified charges were also referred for the military trial, but the negligent-homicide charge was the most serious.

RICHMOND, Va. -- A sailor accused of deserting his submarine, taking a Navy laptop computer loaded with classified information and peddling its contents to a foreign government will face a court-martial, the Navy said Friday. Adm. John B. Nathman, commander of the U.S. Navy's Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, signed off on six charges, including three counts of espionage, against Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann of Salem, Ore.

WASHINGTON -- Wasting little time, Congress is moving quickly to begin writing legislation to allow the creation of military tribunals, following a Supreme Court decision that repudiated the Bush administration's use of such tribunals to try Guantanamo detainees without authorization from Congress. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he would introduce legislation on the tribunals after the Fourth of July recess, which extends through next week. Democratic Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.